Martyn wrote:i'm not a big fan of the olympics but have been watching some of the football games, i'd like to see bolt in the 100m and also the triathlon, the guys in that event must be amazing athletes.

Football? i find olympic football rather boring , but i love gymanstics , its just so competitive.

Martyn wrote:i'm not a big fan of the olympics but have been watching some of the football games, i'd like to see bolt in the 100m and also the triathlon, the guys in that event must be amazing athletes.

Football? i find olympic football rather boring , but i love gymanstics , its just so competitive.

It doesn't always help to do it military style, but in order to achieve olympic glory, you necessarily have to work damn hard, from the beginning, regardless of sport. If not, you can just forget about those medals.

Gymnastics takes a long time to get very good at, you have to start from an early age. Those who become champions do so because they want to be champions, as they themselves have to give it their best later on. If their heart is not in it, nothing happens. Of course it is the parents that takes their kids to the gymnastics hall at first. Where it unfolds from here though, all depends on the kids, if they are good, if they like it or not, etc. You can't just force someone to become a champion.

China has applied an iron hand to all sports, ensuring that talents are picked from a very early age and given extra attention. But this doesn't always give results though. Gymnastics is still a fantastic sport, even if some applies very harsh methods towards those doing the sport. You can find this in any sport. Always someone willing to go the extra mile or perhaps cross a line that shouldn't be crossed.

So, these sports - gymnastics, and so on - even if there's a background for many of the athletes that involves countless hours of hard, hard work, that doesn't mean the sport cannot be enjoyed.

It doesn't always help to do it military style, but in order to achieve olympic glory, you necessarily have to work damn hard, from the beginning, regardless of sport. If not, you can just forget about those medals.

Gymnastics takes a long time to get very good at, you have to start from an early age. Those who become champions do so because they want to be champions, as they themselves have to give it their best later on. If their heart is not in it, nothing happens. Of course it is the parents that takes their kids to the gymnastics hall at first. Where it unfolds from here though, all depends on the kids, if they are good, if they like it or not, etc. You can't just force someone to become a champion.

China has applied an iron hand to all sports, ensuring that talents are picked from a very early age and given extra attention. But this doesn't always give results though. Gymnastics is still a fantastic sport, even if some applies very harsh methods towards those doing the sport. You can find this in any sport. Always someone willing to go the extra mile or perhaps cross a line that shouldn't be crossed.

So, these sports - gymnastics, and so on - even if there's a background for many of the athletes that involves countless hours of hard, hard work, that doesn't mean the sport cannot be enjoyed.

I have to say I do enjoy watching competitive sports when I can see the athletes are enjoying what they are doing. When the sole focus is on the winning though, to me it starts to look pathological pretty fast. Imho gymnastics is the best example of this. There's the many stories of physical and sexual abuse, cases of anorexia and so on.Besides, I cannot imagine a young child voluntarily going through the grueling process of becoming good enough to win a medal without something pretty bad going on in his or her relationship with the parents.Here's a bit about American gymnastics:

Though the system of American gymnastics has become less brutal since the heavily publicized scandals with anorexia and abusive coaching in the nineteen-eighties and nineties, Joan Ryan, the author of “Little Girls in Pretty Boxes,” a best-selling exposé on the sport during that era, says that the system is still designed to weed out and crush the weak. “Certainly, the gymnasts of the last few Olympics look healthier and even happier, though the sport itself requires such incredible discipline and control that the young women’s public personalities are still uncomfortably automaton-like,” she told me. “What I still think about when I watch the gymnasts in the Olympics are all the girls who didn’t make it. How many bodies are scattered along the path to the Games? How many eating disorders and broken backs and crushed self-images?”

There's sad stories involved in almost all sports, because that's the very nature of it: It's a competition.

It's about the strong, not the weak. We celebrate winners, not losers (although of course in the big picture, we embrace sportsmanship, and the ideals of participating, fair play, and so on. So we do see attention given to those who don't always win as well). This is what elite sports is about: Winning. You can and should of course have fun while doing so, but don't think for a second that great athletes like Usain Bolt, McKayla Maroney, Catalina Ponor, Behdad Salimi, Andreas Thorkildsen and more goes to the games being fine with getting the 49th spot in the rank or some such position. They are there to win, to get a medal. If they don't, they are terribly disappointed.

Honestly though, you cannot have watched much gymnastics if you think that the competitors aren't enjoying what they're doing. They have to enjoy their sport, even if it's hardcore, because if they hate it, they can never perform to their utmost best. And when they are doing their events, there's tons of emotions, fun, joy, nervousness, pride, and so on for them.

Sexual abuse? Well, we can just turn to American Football for the latest of that. So now what?

As for the rest of your post: Pure nonsense. So we are to assume by your comment now that all medal winners in gymnastics all have a pretty bad relationship with their parents? The world is not black and white, there are many nuances. There are many different stories. When you try to paint it like you have as above, with one color, into one singular assumed reality alone, you are doing so many competitors (and parents, coaches, teams, etc.) a grave injustice. Because it's nowhere like that.

Congrats Fruitzilla, you just won a gold medal in the Picard Facepalm event.Good job.

Norwegian wrote:There's sad stories involved in almost all sports, because that's the very nature of it: It's a competition.

It's about the strong, not the weak. We celebrate winners, not losers (although of course in the big picture, we embrace sportsmanship, and the ideals of participating, fair play, and so on. So we do see attention given to those who don't always win as well). This is what elite sports is about: Winning. You can and should of course have fun while doing so, but don't think for a second that great athletes like Usain Bolt, McKayla Maroney, Catalina Ponor, Behdad Salimi, Andreas Thorkildsen and more goes to the games being fine with getting the 49th spot in the rank or some such position. They are there to win, to get a medal. If they don't, they are terribly disappointed.

Honestly though, you cannot have watched much gymnastics if you think that the competitors aren't enjoying what they're doing. They have to enjoy their sport, even if it's hardcore, because if they hate it, they can never perform to their utmost best. And when they are doing their events, there's tons of emotions, fun, joy, nervousness, pride, and so on for them.

Sexual abuse? Well, we can just turn to American Football for the latest of that. So now what?

As for the rest of your post: Pure nonsense. So we are to assume by your comment now that all medal winners in gymnastics all have a pretty bad relationship with their parents? The world is not black and white, there are many nuances. There are many different stories. When you try to paint it like you have as above, with one color, into one singular assumed reality alone, you are doing so many competitors (and parents, coaches, teams, etc.) a grave injustice. Because it's nowhere like that.

Congrats Fruitzilla, you just won a gold medal in the Picard Facepalm event.Good job.

Norwegian wrote:What's more insulting though? Me giving you the Picard photo, or you suggesting that every gymnast good enough to take a medal, are in pretty bad relationships with their parents?

Come on now...

You mean, me drawing a provisional ( there's "imagine" in there ) conclusion based on my experience, observation, thinking, and of course, my own blind spots, and you calling me stupid to my (digital) face?

Come on now...

Anyway, this is personal, and off topic now. It seems we have a hard time understanding each others points anyway, so I'll end my part diversion here, with excuses to the topic starter and a for the rest.

Martyn wrote:i'm not a big fan of the olympics but have been watching some of the football games, i'd like to see bolt in the 100m and also the triathlon, the guys in that event must be amazing athletes.

Football? i find olympic football rather boring , but i love gymanstics , its just so competitive.

Is this a real footage of it? Brutality. I have been wondering , but how are we going to solve this problem? Put china on the World Court? Alot of other country does that too? Promote sportsmanship? Is there a use? Its hard to solve such a controversial problem, but the least we can do is support them for their hard work, or should they set a minimum age for training? But theres no effective way of finding out.